TailOverTeaKettle.com

On the heals of several major drug busts in metro Atlanta, AccessNorthGeorgia.com is reporting a major cocaine bust including half a million dollars in drugs. While the other recent drug busts have involved illegal immigrants, it sounds like the immigration status of those involved in this bust are still being checked.

Local and federal officers from the Gainesville/Hall County Gang Task Force, Hall County MANS Unit, FBI, ATF and ICE arrested three men Monday night in a parking lot off Industrial Boulevard for trafficking 15 pounds of cocaine worth approximately $497 thousand.

Gainesville Police Chief Frank Hooper said the trafficking operation was apparently not gang related, but the bust was organized with information gathered by the Gang Task Force.

“This was a planned investigation. This investigation has been ongoing for about a week,” he said. “We were arranging a buy from these individuals for this cocaine.”

One of the men, 32-year-old Victorino Zepeda-Martinez of Gainesville, was also arrested for possession of a firearm. Also arrested were 25-year-old Juan Macedonio-Salgado of Calhoun and 27-year-old Fidel Arevalo-Villa of La Verge, Tennessee.

Hooper said some of the cocaine could have been destined for our area, but he speculated most of it would have continued moving.

“It appears that Gainesville and Hall County has become kind of a stop-off point or distribution point for a large amount of drugs that continue up the east coast,” he said. “The message we want to send is: folks need to find somewhere else to do that.”

Along with the drugs, officers seized two automobiles and the gun. Despite the presence of the weapon, Hooper said the bust went smoothly.

Police are investigating the immigration status of the suspects. All three men are currently in the Hall County Detention Center.